George,
Re your question below:
> In the alternative, does anyone have a
favorite
> hard-boiled historical detective writer? The
only
> novel I can think of off the top of my head is
the
> Eliot Ness book Max A. Collins wrote, which I
think
> is
> called TRUE DETECTIVE and which sits in my TBR
pile.
Actually, TRUE DETECTIVE featured a PI character named Nate
Heller. Eliot Ness did appear, but in a supporting role,
analogous to Bernie Ohls in the Marlowe books, or Pat
Chambers in the Hammer books
(i.e. the PI hero's best friend in official law enforcement).
There have been more than a half-dozen Heller books. The most
recent ANGEL IN BLACK, fictionalizes the Black Dahlia case. I
haven't read it yet, but it reportedly stands up well to
Ellroy's book. As I understand it, Collins suggests a link
between the Dahlia case and the officially unsolved
"Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run" case, a serial murder case
that occurred in Cleveland during the '30s when Elito Ness
was Cleveland's police chief. Ness appears as a character in
ANGEL IN BLACK.
Collins DID write a spin-off series of four novels in which
Eliot Ness was the lead character and Heller occasionally
appeared in a supporting role. These books, beginning with
THE DARK CITY, are set during Ness's tenure as Cleveland's
Director of Publis Safety. The best book in the Ness series,
BUTCHER'S DOZEN, fictionalizes the Kingsbury Run murders and
is something of a "prequel" to ANGEL IN BLACK.
Another great historical crime novel is PORK CITY by Howard
Browne (author of the post-war Paul Pine PI series), which
fictionalizes the investigation into the murder of Chicago
newspaperman Jake Lingle. The hero is Pat Roche, a real-life
DA's Investigator who was actually assigned to the case.
Browne actually lived in Chicago during the Lingle
investigation.
There are plenty of other historical or period HB crime
novels as well.
JIM DOHERTY
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